


Chrysalis

by DenseHumboldt



Category: Captain Marvel (2019)
Genre: Birthday, Drabble, F/M, Gift Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:21:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21675928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DenseHumboldt/pseuds/DenseHumboldt
Summary: Vers drags Yon-Rogg to a strange and new part of Hala
Relationships: Carol Danvers/Yon-Rogg
Comments: 22
Kudos: 47





	Chrysalis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GNorman_12](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GNorman_12/gifts).



> Happy Birthday GNorman_12!
> 
> When you said it was your birthday I couldn't resist. Sorry it is just a short little drabble (VERY quickly written), but I wanted to express my gratitude for your constant comments and support, on this the day of your birth.
> 
> 💚💙❤💜DH

"Just follow me, I know the area," she argued as they got off the train. She could tell his immediate desire to argue back. It was the way he shrugged his shoulders forward.

"That isn't comforting," he said walking a little behind her. Even though she couldn't see him she knew his eyes would be scanning.

"Have I ever led us astray?" She asked with a wiggle of her eyebrows and a glance over her shoulder. He looked comically hesitant.

"Only because I don't let you lead," he answered. His resolve to be difficult was cracking, she could hear it in his voice. She paused as the path from the station met a road. It was nighttime and the streets looked different. Transports zipped by, their edges illuminated with blue lights. When they turned the whole side blinked orange. He stood beside her and waited for a moment.

"Lost?" He tilted his head and said it lowly to her. She swatted his arm before tucking her hands into her pocket. 

Someone was looking at them, she noticed. At him. A woman was whispering to her friend. Vers sighed and turned to him, blocking their view. She tugged up his hood to cover his profile. His smile was warm as he kept his own arms crossed. He raised his eyebrows at her.

"Fearless Kree Commander. I can't take you anywhere," she sighed.

"Because you get lost," he teased. He wasn't looking around anymore. If he knew the women had been looking at him, he ignored it. "Tell me where we are going and I will find it."

"I am not lost," she insisted. She picked a direction. She thought she recognized the way the lights were shaped. She wished she read Kree better, that the Skrulls had not taken her independence as well as her home. Her boots clunked over a metal grate in the side walk. Below echoed the tunnels of the lower levels. Did she remember that sound the last time she was here?

Yon walked behind her in silence for awhile as she tried to look around without turning her head. She would pull something attempting to look down every alley without him knowing.

"What if you gave me a hint?" He said at last. She stopped and turned to him. He stumbled back so as not to collide with her.

"No hints."

She stopped at last. She had found it. She knew it was here.

"This way." They turned down a street that had many red doors. No transports could fit down it. Where it zigzagged the doors across from each other nearly kissed. It was poorly laid out and haphazard. Something that should not exist on Hala, but it did. Just like her, she thought. This was it. Yon was tense. It was a perfect funnel for an ambush.

"Vers," he growled a low warning. He did not want to go further. She looked back at him with a mischevious light in her eyes.

"Do you know it?"

"We are Starforce. We can't be here," he caught her arm and said the words into her ear. She let him tug her like a current.

"Just keep your hood up, Commander," she changed the grip so they were arm in arm. He was tense.

There was movement in a doorway, Vers refused to turn her head. The clicking mandible sounds were unmistakable.

"Vers."

"Just be friendly, Yon," she whispered back.

The end of the small crooked alleyway was a big red arch with a rusted door in it. A dead end.

Unless you knew the password.

Yon turned to look behind him but Vers tugged his arm so he was forced to stay looking forward. She lifted her comm to her mouth and whispered "Starkarzis Thrives" into it. Yon was watching her with a dark look as she lifted the comm and played the words translated to a clicking tongue into a small opening in the door. There was a moment before the door clunked then whirred. It heaved open and Yon looked at her.

"How-?"

"I am friendly," she smiled at him and pulled him into the darkened stairwell beyond. The landing rattled and swayed with the weight of them on it. From below hot drafts of humid air rose. Vers shivered in appreciation as the chill from the streets floated upwards with the forced air. Yon looked up and saw sky through a far away grate in the roof. That was the only source of light. He reached for his wrist to activate the beam. Vers put her hand over his.

"No lights," she said softly. The entire stairwell seemed to heave and breathe as the door sealed behind them.

"It's dark and there are stairs," he answered glibbly.

"You are the mighty Yon-Rogg," she teased. "I have seen you disarm a four-limbed Saarl Raptor Mercenary with your bare hands. Surely you can go down the stairs in the dark."

"I can," he clarified lowering his wrist again and taking the first echoing step. "You are the one I am worried about."

They navigated the stairs slowly. Vers only stumbled once and she caught her hand on his shoulder. The bottom was illuminated in dull red lights and the walls glistened and bulged. It smelt of soil, damp and decay.

"Vers, why are we here?" He asked as they reached the bottom. 

"You don't like sweet things," she shrugged walking past him. He stayed rooted to the spot.

"You brought me to an illegal neighbourhood after dark because I lack your unhealthy voracity for sugar?"

"Yes," she pouted her lips as she nodded, evaluating what he had said. She continued walking down the narrow, slimy hall. It opened to a low room lit dimly with warm yellow lights and spread around like a hypostyle temple were dozens of pillars. Clinging to one of them was a Starkazi, his legs and two of his arms wrapped around the column and his other arms busily stuffed holes in the column with an oozing purple mash he scooped from a bucket hanging off one elbow. As they approached he cocked his head to look at them. His thin steel grey tongue flicked out, licking one pincer.

"Little miss Starforce," he wheezed. He held the 'a' in a long groaning syllable.

"Greeger, how are you?" Vers walked between the pillars towards him. She had a happy elusive smile on her face. Yon wished he had a weapon. Greeger's yellow eyes with their knife-point pupils looked past Vers to where Yon hovered.

"I did not tell you the password so you could come here whenever you want," he wrinkled his nose in distaste. His tongue flicked out again. "With a date."

Vers rolled her eyes, "be nice."

Greeger released the pillar and took a scuttling step towards her.

"Why should I when you bring his kind here?"

"My kind?" Yon repeated, he pushed his hood away. "Do you know-"

"I know you, Commander," Greeger growled. "Golden child of the Kree Military. Do you know what we call you on Starkarzis?"

"Don't," Vers raised her hands to demand peace. "Greeger, you are safe. Your work is safe. Yon is a good friend to have."

Greeger stared him down for a moment before shrugging. "I suppose you want me to show him."

"Please, for me?" Vers smiled winningly and the Starkazi groaned.

"Only once. Not again," he put his bucket down and scuttled away.

Yon tensed as he passed before moving to Vers. He gripped her arm.

"Vers, explain. Now."

"You don't like sweet things," she said again.

"Did I knock you down too hard in training?" He asked he lifted a hand as if to touch her brow. There was a clunk and a whirr in the bowls of the basement. Vents were opening. Yon went on high alert as wind sucked around him and Vers' hair blew wildly.

"Today is your birthday," Vers called above the noise. "I couldn't get you cake."

"What?" He said. He looked around. From the ceiling colourful flakes began to rain down.

"Today you, Yon-Rogg most stubborn of all the Kree, are another year older," she laughed at him as the wind caught the flakes and they fluttered, opening.

Yon realized hundreds maybe thousands of butterflies were being exhausted through vents. Each iridescent in the low light as they caught the breeze. Some landed on the pillars. They fed on the food Greeger had stuffed into the holes.

Yon was struck by it. By the natural beauty and the currents of air wafted by thousands of powdery jewel coloured wings. He looked around his mouth open and his eyes following one after another. The room was silent now save for the rustling like silk of every pillar alive with moving colour.

"Do you like it?" She asked. She was glowing with pride at his surprise.

"Why?" Was all he could say. He drifted a little between the columns so he could look at them more carefully. Vers followed watching him more than the butterflies.

"Starkarzis was lost to the Skrulls. The forests once alive with insects and life were burned. Greeger brought as many as he could when they came to Hala. He is trying to preserve them until they can return home."

As Yon approached a column he saw it was covered not just with butterflies but clinging cocoons, each dull like dried leaves. She came closer to him and watched him look at them. His finger brushed the dry outside. The flutter of blue wings climbing over their future generations caressed him.

"I meant why mark the day of my birth?" He said at last, turning to her.

She shrugged. Her eyes had a faraway look as she worried her lip.

"Seemed important," she said with practiced nonchalance. "Stuff like that. It's part of who you are."

It was a blank for her. When she was born. How old she was. He saw it in her eyes; celebrating, creating a memory was as much about her. A pin in the map.

"I don't know when-" he started to say.

"It's fine," she said moving closer to look at the large blue butterfly that had touched him.

"It could be today," he said awkwardly.

"What?" She said crinkling her nose as she looked over her shoulder at him.

"Today, could also be the date of your birth. Statistically, it's possible."

She laughed and shook her head.

"No, it's tomorrow," she teased him.

"Tomorrow?" He repeated in his warm voice. The one that encouraged her and built her up.

"Yes," she nodded sagely. She raised an eyebrow at him, "and I want cake."


End file.
